Reluctant
to elbow our way through the throng of sizeable Finns camped out trackside, we perch on a hill. The vista takes in a dark patch of forest with a snaking dirt track descending into a sweeping dip before cresting past farm buildings. Much like yesterday, the unseasonably warm weather draws a colourful and cheerful crowd and, again, unless you’re timing proceedings with metronomic accuracy, you have to keep an eye peeled for subtle cues of impending action: the distant sound of a highly stressed engine hitting its limiter; dust clouds; a helicopter; or a ripple of excitement and scramble for binoculars.
Then it happens. In a matter of seconds, the first Yaris emerges from the forest, hurtles down the hill and vanishes from sight.
With a chuckle and a hearty draught of beer, the crowd soon packs up its blankets and cooler boxes and begins a leisurely trudge to the next stage, looking for all the world like revellers upping sticks between acts at Glastonbury.
An hour’s drive and another 25 minutes of hiking through humid farmland sees us camped at the well-stocked oasis of Toyota Gazoo’s hospitality paddock at Tuohikotanen. It is at this broad gravel crescent that I get up close and personal with the rally cars. And they don’t disappoint.
You haven’t lived until you’ve seen a beefed up hatchback scything sideways through a bend, a billowing comet’s tail of dust in tow. Again, the break between cars is a feeding and watering opportunity with our enclave playing special host to WRC great, Marcus Grönholm, the affable Finn recounting the infamous time his co-driver Timo Rautiainen was almost skewered through the seat of his pants by a stray piece of metal.
Paijala serves up the longawaited yumps I had envisioned and, for once, multi-angle TV coverage pales in comparison to being trackside to the spectacle of rally cars leaping close to 40 metres, landing with enough force to make you wince and look away.
Back at the service park, we learn Tänak has pasted his opposition, opening up a 39-second gap between himself and Østberg, while Latvala closed out the third berth.
With this first taste of Rally Finland comes the appreciation that flashy isn’t fast; while putting in some impressive air on the yumps, defending champion Sébastien Ogier’s often tail-happy full-attack run in a decidedly sideways Ford with new and unfamiliar aero and suspension setups yielded only an eighth placing.